The 2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting occurred on 2 March 2011 at

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport ( ) , is Germany's busiest international airport by passenger numbers, located in Frankfurt, Germany's fifth-largest city. Its official name according to the German Aeronautical Information Publication is Frankfurt Main Airpor ...

in Germany. The shooter, Arid Uka, was arrested and charged with killing two United States Airmen and seriously wounding two others. He was convicted of murder and attempted murder and sentenced to life in prison on . According to the court judge at (Higher Regional Court) Frankfurt, this was the first terrorist attack in Germany in which the perpetrator had an Islamist motive.

Shooting

According to the German investigators, Uka targeted a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

bus parked outside the terminal building that was supposed to transport 15 U.S. airmen to

Ramstein Air Base Ramstein Air Base is a United States Air Force installation located in Rhineland-Palatinate, southwestern Germany. It serves as the headquarters for the United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA) and NATO Alli ...

. He reportedly walked up to a waiting airman, asked him for a cigarette, and wanted to know whether the airmen were bound for

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. When the airman said yes, according to German prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum, Uka waited for the airman to turn away and then shot him in the back of the head, killing him. Shouting "

Allahu Akbar Allah ( ; , ) is an Arabic term for God, specifically the God of Abraham. Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), although the term was used in pre-Islamic Arabia ...

!" the attacker then entered the bus, shooting and killing the driver, fired three shots at two other airmen, wounding them. When he pointed his pistol at the head of Sergeant Trevor Brewer and pulled the trigger, the weapon jammed. Uka fled but was pursued by the civilian airport employee Lamar Joseph Conner and Staff Sergeant Trevor Donald Brewer and shortly afterwards overpowered by two German police officers. He was subsequently arrested. The two victims killed in the shooting were Senior Airman Nicholas Alden, 25, of

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

and Airman First Class Zachary Cuddeback, 21, of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. Staff Sgt. Kristoffer Schneider was shot in the right temple and lost his sight in one eye. The right side of his face had to be rebuilt with titanium, and he suffers head pain and seizures. Part of his skull also had to be removed after an infection. Schneider was medically retired in 2012. Edgar Veguilla was hit in the jaw and arm and suffered nerve damage. Conner and Brewer later received the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

in a ceremony on 16 January 2012. Federal Interior Minister

Hans-Peter Friedrich Hans-Peter Friedrich (born 10 March 1957) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag from 1998 to 2025 . Under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel, he served as ...

presented the decoration, citing their "exemplary courage and action which helped the Federal Police arrest the suspect".

Perpetrator

Arid Uka, the 21-year-old perpetrator, was a

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

-born ethnic

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

who had lived in Germany since he was one year old; his family having lived in there for four decades. His grandfather was a

Kosovo Albanian The Albanians of Kosovo (, ), also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars (), constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians belong to the ethnic Albanian sub-group of Ghegs, who inhabit the north of ...

imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

, while his parents and two brothers led secular lives. He had been working at the airport post office. He had not shown any jihadist inclinations before the attacks, but

radicalized Radicalization (or radicalisation) is the process by which an individual or a group comes to adopt increasingly radical views in opposition to a political, social, or religious status quo. The ideas of society at large shape the outcomes of radic ...

rapidly beginning in late summer 2010. In the months before the attack, he underwent a late-adolescent crisis. Uka left school before his university-entrance diploma, but did not tell his family. Instead, he told them that he had finished the diploma successfully. His family members, former friends, and one of his employers described him as introverted, polite, and not aggressive. Months before the shooting, Uka broke ties to all his friends and retreated. During this time, he was extensively surfing the web visiting websites with Salafi jihadist content. He started wearing typically Islamic clothing and began to study Arabic. Uka decided to join the fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan but failed to do so since he failed to establish the right contacts. Through the internet, Uka established contact with Sheikh Abdellatif, a Moroccan preacher and

jihadism Jihadism is a neologism for modern, armed militant Political aspects of Islam, Islamic movements that seek to Islamic state, establish states based on Islamic principles. In a narrower sense, it refers to the belief that armed confrontation ...

supporter affiliated with the Da'wa group, who preached in two mosques in Frankfurt. The Salafi mosque of these two is considered as a meeting-point for radical Islamists. Several well-known Islamists have been seen there.''Der Frankfurter Pistolenschütze und seine Kontakte‘‘. In: heise online, 3. März 2011''
heise.de (in German) An early example of Salafist

lone wolf terrorism Lone wolf terrorism, or lone actor terrorism, is a type of terrorism committed by an individual who both plans and commits the act on their own. The precise definition of the term varies, and some definitions include those directed by larger org ...

in Europe, Uka's sole contacts with extremists was online, he never had direct personal contact and was never involved in physical network. According to German authorities, Uka confessed to the killings when interrogated after the shooting. Uka's lawyer said that the motivation for the shooting was a video on YouTube, which showed U.S. soldiers raping Iraqi Muslim women. Uka was convinced that the video was genuine, but it was in fact a clip taken from '' Redacted'', an American film based on the Mahmudiyah massacre. On the internet, Uka posted on several Islamist forums, later claiming that through the content and the discussions in these forums, he came to believe that his fellow Muslims were in global war with the United States. Uka was also influenced by jihadist A

nasheed A ''nasheed'' (, ) is a work of vocal music, partially coincident with hymns, that is either sung ''a cappella'' or with instruments, according to a particular style or tradition within Sunni Islam. Nasheeds are popular throughout the Islamic ...

, including Anasheed made by Abou Maleeq, who would later join the

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

Trial and sentence

During Uka's trial, his defence lawyer described him as a non-typical violent criminal who is neither religiously motivated nor an Islamist terrorist, while the

Attorney General of Germany The Public Prosecutor General at the Federal Court of Justice ( or ''GBA ) is the federal prosecutor of Germany, representing the federal government at the '' Bundesgerichtshof'', the federal court of justice. The office of the Public Prosecuto ...

named Uka as a single perpetrator, which was applied for a sentence of life imprisonment plus a finding of "exceptional gravity of guilt". On 10 February 2012, the Hessian State Superior Court (''

Oberlandesgericht An (; plural – ; OLG, , or in Berlin '' Kammergericht'': KG) is a higher court in Germany. There are 24 in Germany and they deal with civil and criminal matters. They are positioned above regional courts () and below the Federal Cour ...

'' Frankfurt am Main) sentenced Uka to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

for two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder with the determination of an "exceptional gravity of guilt", which means that he will not be eligible for parole after having served fifteen years. Because he was sentenced to more than three years imprisonment, he will be deported to

after having served his sentence as he does not hold German citizenship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frankfurt Airport shooting 2011 crimes in Germany 2011 in international relations 2011 in military history 2011 mass shootings in Europe 2011 murders in Germany March 2011 crimes in Europe March 2011 in Germany Islamic terrorist incidents in 2011 Terrorist incidents in Germany in 2011 2010s in Frankfurt 21st-century history of the United States Air Force American people murdered abroad Crime in Frankfurt Islamic terrorism in Germany Spree shootings in Germany Terrorist attacks on airports in Europe Terrorist incidents on buses in Europe Mass shootings in Germany Germany–United States relations Attacks on buildings and structures in Germany Attacks on buildings and structures in 2011

Shooting

Perpetrator

Trial and sentence

See also

References